ABSTRACT
When Dash Bahu, the Brahman contractor, is afflicted with a venereal disease, he calls upon Muli to take care of him. As in previous incidents, a man of status becomes a pitiful object of ridicule, depending on Muli the Bauri to rescue him. Muli delights in playing up the contrasts: a man of ritual purity becomes the polluted carrier of putrid, loathsome pus; a haughty Brahman becomes a whimpering patient; a shy Bauri boy talks disrespectfully to a Brahman.
Nevertheless, Dash Babu ultimately gains the upper hand. To hide his shame from his caste and family, he persuades Muli, an untouchable, to do the degrading work of caring for him. Muli complies, for in a sense the Brahman is in his power. But Muli recognizes that he is still being treated like an untouchable; he expresses his resentment of this by resorting to passive resistance, asserting, for example, that he can neither bring the Brahman water nor wash the Brahman’s dishes because he is a polluting untouchable.
